Lego

November 5, 2018

Today, students will learn about how little we can be described in many ways. How push and pull affect the movement and shape of objects. How cause-and-effect can be stored in mechanical systems. And how fair testing impacting optimize his outcomes. We discussed a captain and pirates for example on a raft or a boat. The captain and his crew wants to travel far to bury his loot. Children were to construct and build a raft. Teacher filled a tub with water. And students gently placed their bill dropped in the water to see if it will float or sink.

October 29, 2018

STUDENTS WERE TO BE CREATIVE AND BEGIN CREATING A CREATURE OF ANY SORT WHILE MUSIC PLAYED. WHEN THE MUSIC STOPPED THE STUDENTS PASSED THEIR CREATION TO THE RIGHT AND THEIR NEIGHBOR WAS TO ADD TO THE CREATION. THIS CHALLENGE INVOLVED COMBINING IDEAS. AT THE END OF CLASS, EVERY “MUSICAL MONSTER” WILL BE UNIQUE BECAUSE OF THE COMBINATION IDEAS. (IDEATION:THE PROCESS OF FORMING AND RELATING IDEAS.)

October 22, 2018

Haunted House: Students were to build a crooked haunted house. As we all know it is the home to the spookiest ghosts and ghouls. They were to add their own twist on their very own Lego creation and build a haunted house with their group. They had to use their coop collaborative skills and work together to make up the best haunted house they can imagine. They had to use their communication skills and come up with a haunted house as a team. They use their imagination and they were ready to share their creation aloud.

October 15, 2018

Seesaw: Today students had to build a seesaw. They had to make sure it was balanced was able to withstand the weight of a lego figure. We discussed buoyancy, balance, weight, and position.

October 8, 2018

Today the students made a machine to help “Mr. Bear” enter a building without a ramp or any handicap access. Mr. Bear is handicap and in a wheelchair. The students looked for a safe way to get Mr. Bear to explore the building without having to get out of his wheelchair.

September 24, 2018

RAMPS: We discussed gravity and force. Students were to build a ramp out of Legos. Students were challenged because they had to stop and think if the hot wheel provided will fly down the ramp and how far it will go? What can make the car go faster? Students made predictions, experimented, observed and Had fun.

May 21, 2018

Today’s Challenge was a special request by the students. They all kept hearing about the first session and a challenge called “The Drop Test.” The students asked if we could perform that challenge on the last day. Here are the students holding their masterpiece. They were to construct a figure of any sort consisting of 25 lego bricks. Once ll students were done, each construction was droppped one at a time from 3 feet height and later 4 feet or 5 feet their masterpiece survived. The student with the least amount of pieces to break apart when dropped, succeeded!

The students discovered that larger, flatter builds withstood the drop the easiest. This is because the force is distributed over a larger area making the overall force at each point in the design less.

May 14, 2018

We discussed 6 basic simple machines such as levers, whees, axles, and more…

May 7, 2018

Pressure-Proof Structures:

Today’s challenge was for the students to imagine that a Lego person is working in a mine underground deep inside the crust of the Earth. Students are to create a shelter for the mine workers that will withstand the pressure inside the earth and protect the minors from a cave-in. Our engineering goals were to discuss the ways to make strong structure that can withstand a lot of force. We also discussed that the pressure in the core, middle, of the earth is very high, and pushes on structures from all angles, so every part of the building would need to be extremely strong. I tested the students structure using small weights. I tested the top and sides of the structure. So that students realize that the pressure comes from every angle. Students were allowed time to revise and rebuild their design to improve it (support more pressure and weight).

April 30, 2018

Today’s challenge: Build your own super hero/ Villian

Students are to build their own super hero or villian. After 10 minutes of buiding, what they built will be passed on to the person next to them. That person will then add to their character. Students must not remove any pieces and only add to what is already there. Students will then rotate back and share their characters and what super powers they may have.

April 23, 2018

Lego Engineering Design Challenge: Extreme Shelters

Imagine your Lego person has moved to an extremely hot climate. Design a structure that will protect him/her from the sun and heat. OR imagine the climate is extremely cold and snowy. Can you Design a climate that will help keep them dry and/or warm?

We discussed designing for extreme weather conditions

April 16, 2018

Engineering Escapes:

The challenge is a Lego person gets stuck at the bottom of a canyon (trash can). Can you devise a solution using legs to get the Lego person out of the canyon?

Students will be learning to design a product to solve a problem that a specific client has.

Students will also be learning that there is no one “correct” solution, but rather infinite ways to successfully solve the problem.

Feb 12 2018

February 3, 2018

Transportation Innovation (2-6-18)

Today the challenge was to create a new method of transportation that is environmentally friendly. Students were to think outside the box about transportation methods that don’t yet exist. They named their invention and shared with the class how they worked.

January 23, 2018

Today’s Challenge: Pyramids

We watched a short animated video on pyramids. Students were given a mini history lesson and shared their own knowledge of Pyramids. Students were then to choose one lego from their group bin to call a “treasure.” Students were then asked to build their own pyramid around their “treasure” as the Egyptians did for the Pharaohs

January 16, 2018

On our first day of Master Builders Club the challenge was to build the TALLEST TOWER

Students learned and discussed the stability of tall structures and how to engineer tall buildings that are also strong.

Students were to construct the tallest lego skyscraper while keeping in mind that there are lots of earthquakes in Legoville, so the tower must have been able to withstand an earthquake. (A shake test)

November 13, 2017

Today’s Chalenge: Amazing Mazes Today the students created a maze that a marbel could run through including turns tunnels and dead ends. They were to make of them difficult to navigate. We emphasized the need for the maze to have a defined a starting point and ending point. We made sure that they would have a plan before they build just like an engineer would plan. We discussed how engineers make plans before they build but sometimes those plans change and evolved during the design process just as it may have happened for the students when they were making their maze.

November 6, 2017

Today’s challenge was to construct a ship out of legos. Teacher filled bowls with water. The students were to create ships that must endure the “ocean” waves and lots of heavy cargo. We learned about buoyancy and how to design objects that will float. Will their boat sink or float?

October 23, 2017

Master Builders: Musical Monsters

The Challenge involved combining ideas to create an elaborate monster. To do this every one of the young engineers started by building their own monster while music played in the background. Then when the music stopped, everyone passed their monster to the left. When the music began again each student added onto a fellow Master Builder’s design. At the end every monster will be unique because of the combination of ideas.

Ideation (the process of forming and relating ideas) techniques are ways that engineers brainstorm and come up with crazy an innovative ideas. One ideation technique involves the passing off of ideas to other people and seeing how they add on to those ideas. This challenge gave the children an opportunity to participate in this ideation technique in a fun and silly way.

Today’s challenge: Bridge Building. A lego person who lives in the United States wants to visit his Lego friend in England. To get across the ocean that separates the U.S. and England, the Lego person can only drive. The challenge today was to build a bridge that is strong enough and sturdy enough so no Lego people falls into the ocean.

Engineering goal: We discussed how to make supports for the bridges using trusses (frames that help support bridges) and arcs (part of a circle or curve).

Here are a few pictures of the kids in action

Today the students were to combine exactly 20 Lego bricks together so that when dropped from a defined height they do not break apart. Students discovered that larger,flatter builds withstood the drop test easiest. This was because the force was distributed over a large area making the overall force at each point in the design less. Here is a picture of how students performed the drop test and another picture of our competitors that were left before the final elimination drop test.

Today they made their name out of legos. First in 2D then in 3D. Next week there will be a Lego competition. Here are some pictures from Monday, Oct 4.